The Final Days

Well the Italy Farewell Tour is about over. This last week has been a blur of activities and little sleep. Kinda reminds me of the last week of college. So busy finishing projects that you forget things like sleep and showering. Don't worry though I took a shower this morning so I won't come back to the states too dirty.

I forgot to post about my pizza lesson on Monday. I went over to my friend, Fabrizio's to have my second lesson in Italian cuisine. Sunday he taught me tiramisu and then on to the main course Monday night. The pizza was very easy to make but didn't quiet turn out like I expected. It was good but I was thinking it would taste like the ones in restaurants. He baked in a pan so it looked more like a cake than a round pizza...despite the apperance it was still good and while it was baking he wrote both recipes down for me. We hung out for several hours after and finally called it a night around 1 am.

Wednesday, Louisa came to pick me up for dinner at 8. We went to a sushi restaurant (it happened to be next to Fabrizio's apartment) but they were all booked so we drove to another place. They were also booked so we called the third and last sushi place Louisa knew of and booked a table. The food was amazing (turns out it was the same place Pat and Alberto took me on my first night back here in August. For dessert we had green tea gelato and I think this is my favorite flavor I've tried.

On Thursday it was like any other day, went to work, got the boys after school, took them to basketball and then fixed dinner for the three of us. Nonna Deana came over in the afternoon and fixed the main course for dinner, beans with pork ribs. It sounds fantastic but really not that amazing. She said her goodbyes to me and we both cried. It was very sad to say goodbye to my Italian grandmother, a woman I probably won't see again until we meet in heaven. This was the first shedding of many tears. When we got home from basket I prepared the table and then called the boys to eat. They were playing with a new lego truck Ruggie got from Louisa the night before. They were so interested in the toy that they wouldn't come to the table. Finally when they arrived they wouldn't eat because they didn't like it. So I made them hot dogs. What would the last meal with them be like without a fight right? Pat came home around 9 and I met Lucy for a coffee downtown. This was great to get to know her better and relax in the cafe.

Friday, last day of work!! Only three hours at that!! Right before I left for work I got a call from Barbara that she wasn't at home cause her little girl had fallen on the way to school and they were still with the doctor. So I worked at home for an hour and then headed over to the office. Her little girl had tripped and scraped her lip and had a knot on her head but was doing well. I started to work and Mathilde arrived at 12:30. We wrapped things up and decided to meet again at 5 to finish discussing my internship. After I took Ruggie to gym I went back to Mathilde's to talk about how the internship went and all the work I had done. When I left I felt really good about the internship and her despite all that has happened between us these last three months. I went home to change and then met Barbara at her house. Mathilde let Barbara borrow the car so we drove downtown to meet Mathilde and her husband Ayoul for dinner. She told us one piazza and so we parked our car and then couldn't find the restaurant. When I called her for the third time she finally told us she told us the wrong piazza so we walked a mile or so to the actual one. We ate at this very authentic, and wonderful place and had really good conversation. After dinner we went to a bar for after dinner drinks...again remember bar is not like the beer joint bar or something like that, but rather a restaurant or appertivo place. They left us there and we met some people and practiced our Italian a little. Finally we called it a night and walked the 3 miles to our car in the freezing cold.

Saturday was very relaxed and while the guys were at the pool I cleaned my room and packed all my bags. They came home and we had lunch all together. Oh how I'm going to miss these moments. After lunch I met Barbara and Andrea and we went downtown to this store that I had seen some hats in earlier in my stay. I picked out a hat and they bought it for me as a going away gift. We stopped for some foccia (kinda like pizza) and then I had to be back to start getting ready for the appertivo party we were having at our house. Pat planned the party from 6-8 and nineteen people came to say goodbye!! I was amazed of the turn out and also felt very blessed to have met so many wonderful people. It was also very bittersweet to say goodbye to some many great people, I really can't imagine what tomorrow at the airport will be like. We had a great time talking and laughing and one of the highlights of the evening was when Pat asked me to show everyone my suitcase I bought last week cause it was so big and most people had never seen one that big. Umm little embarrassing but funny. After everyone left Lucy, Andrea and Barbara stayed with me and the boys. We sat around and talked and then said our goodbyes. It feels weird to have to say goodbye to people you have spent so much time with but I treated it more like normal I'll see tomorrow kind of thing so it would be less painful. Well that's the summary of the last week in Italy. I have one more blog coming that is a wrap of this amazing experience. Please stay tuned for I hope to post it very shortly.